Tracking Inventory Questions - maybe you can help?

[vader0316]

Hello Community!

My husband and I are getting to the point that we need help with inventory management, so we turned to the 'INVENTORY MAGAGEMENT' tools within Ebay. I'm fairly sure that I am entering inventory the most round-about way possible. I'm looking to try to make it right so I can use the inventory tracking to the best of its ability.

Here's what we're doing (my husband and I) ... we sell new movies direct from distributor:

STEP  1  : THE DRAFT :: He goes and finds a similar listing by scanning the UPC on the back of the movie and 'sells similar' and places it in the Listing Drafts folder and fills out as much specs as he can.

STEP 2 : EMBELLISHING / PUBLISHING :: I open the draft, upload associated images and copy and paste our standard verbiage into the Item Description field. I then publish the listing.

STEP 3 : ADD TO INVENTORY :: This is where I'm SURE there has GOT to be an easier way. I search in active inventory. Check the box by the item I want to add to inventory. I select the drop-down menu - Actions > Add to Inventory and fill out the form accordingly. SIDE NOTE: I feel that there are totally irrevelant, yet apparently mandatory, fields that I have no use for by doing it this way... 

In doing some research, I see that I can fill out a spreadsheet and output as .csv - which sounds like the easiest route, especially since we're going to be doing a full inventory assessment the first week in January. BUT, if I upload a new inventory .csv file - how will that affect the existing inventory data that's already there ... will it just overwrite it? If so, how will my listings be affected? I just want clean data!!!

Or should I just say screw it and start using a 3rd party inventory solution?

Thank you in advance for helping!

[dbmm-media]

your over thinking things and making it rough for yourself.

[myboardid]

Back before any spreadsheet programs existed, I made a DOS spreadsheet for my own retail store inventory, and I still use it.  I use a spreadsheet for each supplier I have, enter each item I've bought and how much it costs.  I enter the retail price I charge.  At the end of the year (you could certainly use a shorter time period if you want to) I count it all and enter the quantity of the remaining items.  The spreadsheet calculates the profit margin.  I don't try to figure out each individual item, just the totals for tax purposes. 

I don't use anything associated with eBay for inventory, and find even my listing management program hard to use for that, since I sell on several venues and in my retail store.  But I do keep up with it daily and when my listings are showing that I have only a few of an item left, I go and physically check to be sure it is correct.  That should prevent over-selling but once in a while I miss something.  I also actually list one less item than I actually have, until I get down to a couple left, then I adjust. 

[sam9876]

"I don't try to figure out each individual item, just the totals for tax purposes."

Bingo!

[sin-n-dex]

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@vader0316 wrote:

The main reason I started tracking inventory was to be able to assign a cost for each item and determine the cost of goods sold.

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I'm horrid at tracking things... but I have a spreadsheet for most of my tokens set up to see what they all cost (along with other details I want to track).

I do a similar tracking with my artwork and jewellery to calculate costs.

Cheers, C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@sam9876 wrote:

You don't need to assign a cost to each item.

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Yes you do. I sell for other people, I pay them when it sells. I need to know how much to pay them.

Cheers, C.

[sam9876]

 You are not assigning a cost to the item.

You are keeping track of what the item sold for.